Introduction

Fast Changing by Keyboard

To change the period of the chart bars through the keyboard, make the chart with the bars that you want to change the active chart, if it is not already active, by selecting it with a single left click using the mouse pointer anywhere on the chart window, with a single left click on the title bar of the chart, by selecting it from the chart tabs along the top or bottom of the main window (if displayed), or by selecting it from the Window menu.

Type the new period from the keyboard and press the ENTER key on your keyboard. As you type, the characters will appear in the title area of the window, assuming the title bar is wide enough to see the standard text and the additional characters being typed. The window captures the keys as you press them.

Example: With an Intraday chart, type 10 and press the ENTER key to change the bars to 10 minutes, assuming it is a Minute based chart currently. If it were currently a Range bar chart, then this would change to a 10 Tick Range per bar. With a Historical Daily chart, type 5 and press the ENTER key to change to a 5 Day bar period.

You can also change the Bar Period Type by entering the abbreviation for the Bar Period Type at the end of the period number. This is described in more detail below.

When a chart drawing modification function on the Tools menu, like the Erase Drawing Mode or Move Drawing, is selected, changing the period of the chart bars through the keyboard may not work. To solve this problem, select a different tool like Tools >> Chart Values.

The following are the supported Bar Period Type abbreviations:

s: Seconds Per Bar

m: Minutes Per Bar

h: Hours Per Bar

t: Trades Per Bar

v: Volume Per Bar

r: Range Per Bar (Standard range bars)

rm: Range Per Bar (New bar on range met)

rt: Range Per Bar (True range bars)

rf: Range Per Bar (Fill gaps)

ro: Range Per Bar (Open = close)

rmo: Range Per Bar (New bar on range Met and Open = close)

rv: Reversal Bar

rk: Renko Bar

fr: Flex Renko Bar (BoxSize, TrendOffset, RevOffset with a comma, dash, or space delimiting the period components. This abbreviation suffix must always be typed when changing the Flex Renko Bar settings by the keyboard.)

ar: Aligned Renko

dv: Delta Volume Per Bar

pc: Price Changes Per Bar

d: Days Per Bar

w: Weeks Per Bar

mn: Months Per Bar

q: Quarters Per Bar

y: Years Per Bar

fri: Flex Renko Inverse Setting Bar (BarSize, TrendBarOffset, ReversalBarTrigger with a comma, dash, or space delimiting the period components. This abbreviation suffix must always be typed when changing the Flex Renko Inverse Setting Bar settings by the keyboard.)

pf: Point and Figure (BoxSize, ReversalSize)

pnf: Point and Figure (BoxSize, ReversalSize)

If the chart is an Intraday chart:

To switch to Minute based chart bars, type the number of Minutes followed by the letter m (for example: 15m).

To switch to Seconds based chart bars, type the number of Seconds followed by the letter s (for example: 10s).

To switch to Number of Trades based chart bars, type the number of Number of Trades per bar followed by the letter t (for example: 100t).

To switch to Volume based chart bars, type the number of Shares or Contracts per bar followed by the letter v (for example: 100000v).

To switch to Range based chart bars, type the Range in Ticks followed by the letter r (for example: 4r for 4 Ticks per bar).

To switch to Reversal based chart bars, type the Reversal Amount, and the Minimum Length followed by the abbreviation rv (for example: 5-10rv, 10,15rv, 5 10rv).

To switch to Days based chart bars, type the number of Days followed by the letter d (for example: 1d).

To switch to Flex Renko bars, type the BoxSize, TrendOffset, and RevOffset separated by either commas, dashes, or spaces, followed by the abbreviation fr (for example: 4-2-2fr, 5,3,2fr, or 8 7 1fr).

To switch to Point and Figure bars, type the BoxSize, and ReversalSize separated by either commas, dashes, or spaces, followed by the abbreviation pf or pnf (for example: 1-5pf, 1,5pf, 1 5pf).

Changing the Period of the Chart Bars Through Control Bar Buttons

Select Global Settings >> Customize Control Bar 1-8. In the Customize Control Bar window you can add buttons for common Historical and Intraday bar periods.

These are listed in the Available Control Bar Commands >> Chart Bar Period list. For Historical charts these will be: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly.

For Intraday charts these will begin with Intraday Bar Period. Once these are added, you can press these buttons directly on the Control Bar.

To make the Control Bar visible if it is not already, select Window >> Control Bars >> Control Bar 1-8.

It is supported to customize 20 Control Bar buttons to set a specific time period per bar for Intraday charts. For complete documentation, refer to Custom Buttons for Intraday Chart Bar Period. Custom Control Bar buttons are also supported for Number of Trades, Volume, Range, Reversal, Renko, Delta Volume, Price Change, Point and Figure Bars.

Changing the Period of the Chart Bars Through the Chart Menu

There are several commands on the Chart >> Bar Periods menu to change the period of chart bars. They are as follows: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly and many common Intraday chart bar periods

Changing the Period of the Chart Bars Through Chart Settings

You can also change the chart bars period through the Chart Settings window by selecting Chart >> Chart Settings on the Sierra Chart menu. You can set the period with the controls in the Intraday Chart Period or the Historical Chart Period frames. For more information, refer to Chart Settings.

Changing the Period of Chart Bars Uses Only Local Data File

When changing the period/timeframe of chart bars by using any of the methods documented on this page, the chart bars are rebuilt by using data from the chart data file for the symbol held on your local computer.

There is no downloading of historical data from the remote data server which occurs while the chart bars are being rebuilt from the chart data file held on your computer. Downloading of historical data does not occur immediately after the chart bars are built either.

If it appears to be taking a long time reading the data from the local data file, then this could be caused by antivirus/anti-malware software. For more information about this, refer to help topic 30.8.

Improving Performance of Loading Chart Data

When changing the period/timeframe of Intraday chart bars by using any of the methods documented on this page, if the chart takes longer than you want to load, then follow the below instructions to improve performance.